In our experience, there are 3 common reasons why companies are reluctant to take the leap from in-house to contract cleaning. You may have even given one or these responses yourself:

1. CONTRACT CLEANING IS TOO EXPENSIVE!If you currently have more than 2 hours of cleaning per day, then you might be surprised to find that contract cleaning could be a cost-effective solution for you. When comparing costs, it is worth considering that an in-house cleaner will require you to pay for sick cover, holiday cover, maternity leave and National Insurance. Over time, these add up. Outsourcing to a contract cleaning provider will also result in no more last-minute searches for a cover-cleaner or worse still, having to carry out the cleaning yourself when you have so many other jobs to get on with.

Taking away the hassle of managing staff and dealing with time-consuming personnel issues, has the knock-on effect of reducing your costs and enabling your company to run more efficiently. In addition, a large cleaning contractor is likely to benefit from buying chemicals and equipment in bulk. Any good supplier will usually pass these savings onto their customers – another cost reduction for you.

2. HAPPY WITH MY CLEANER AND DON’T WANT TO CHANGEIf you currently employ a cleaner who is providing a good service, it is very simple for the cleaning company to take over as employer. At Plains Services, we are always keen to hire cleaners who have been recommended to us and in certain circumstances, the current TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) law will require us to do just that. This law also states that the cleaning staff must be hired under the same pay and terms and conditions.

3. DON’T WANT TO BE TIED INTO A CONTRACT There are a lot of initial overheads involved in taking on a new site: equipment; training; advertising of staff; time etc. Of course, there is likely to be a contract but this has its advantages to you as the customer – a promise of what the cleaning company will commit to providing, written down and signed by both parties.

In this industry, contracts tend to have a duration of between 1 and 3 years, sometimes longer; at Plains Services, we work on a 12-month initial term. In addition, you should find that any decent cleaning provider will have an exit clause for poor performance, protecting you as the customer.

Making a change to the familiar is always a daunting prospect but hopefully this has helped you to better understand the advantages to contract cleaning and the benefits that this service could make to your company.

​​Contact Plains Services for your free on-site assessment

We would love to quote for your cleaning. It costs nothing and at the very least will allow you to see if you’re getting value for money. We will visit you and put together a full quotation document including references, cleaning schedule, insurance details, risk assessments and a breakdown of cost.

If you would like to discuss your requirements further, please call us on 0115 9638401 or complete our online enquiry form. ​

While they may share certain cleaning needs, every office is different. From layout to number of occupants, each property will vary in its requirements – particularly if the nature of the business creates cleaning needs that are out of the ordinary.

This makes the question of how often to have your office professionally cleaned slightly more complex than it might seem. That said, there are daily cleaning tasks that should be completed as standard, and ensuring that you have the right office cleaning company to carry them out is vital to the ongoing hygiene, appearance and general well-being of your working environment.

Regular Cleaning NeedsAppearance and first impressions are important not only for visitors to your business, but also for the motivation of your staff – there is nothing more demoralising than a dirty floor or dust all over desks and computers. Therefore, daily cleaning is the key to high standards of upkeep.

Your cleaning company should be instructed to dust all surfaces, vacuum carpets and mop hard floors, disinfect all bathrooms and clear up in kitchen areas, and any professional outfit worth its salt will be able to do this out of office hours to ensure that it doesn’t impact on the working day.

Daily cleaning is particularly important when computers or other electronic equipment are a central focus of the business’s operations, as dust build up can block ventilation components and cause malfunction, having a negative impact on productivity.

Stopping the spread of disease, especially in busy offices with high employee numbers, is also crucial for maintaining high productivity levels, as losing workers to coughs and colds for a couple of days at a time will soon start to add up.

Nature of the BusinessSome offices, however, will require specialist cleaning requirements due to the nature of the environment in which they operate.

Any offices on a medical premises, such as a GPs surgery or dental practice, will be subject to the stricter hygiene needs of these places, while factories and warehouses with heavy machinery or the propensity for oil and material waste will require a more detailed daily cleaning plan.

Less Regular Cleaning NeedsWhile daily cleaning tasks focus on issues of hygiene and appearance, a less regular approach can be taken to some areas of the office.

For example, while sills and frames should be regularly dusted, windows themselves will require a deep clean inside and out, only once a month or so (unless they become particularly dirtied by bad weather in the meantime).

Carpets, too, require less regular attention – a deep cleaning and shampooing every six months or so should suffice, so long as they are vacuumed each day.

Plains ServicesRegardless of the cleaning requirements of your office, we at Plains Services are on hand to tailor a regular schedule that suits the exact needs of your environment.

Working throughout Nottingham, we call on over 15 years of experience at the forefront of the office cleaning industry to provide a high quality, flexible and reliable service to all of our customers.

For more information, get in touch today and arrange an initial site visit & meeting. Call us on 0115 9638401